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Neighbors of the Webb Tract near Montgomery Village and the GE Tech Park in Gaithersburg are increasingly frustrated by what some say is a lack of community leadership on a county proposal that would move or build several county operations to the properties.

Elements of County Executive Isiah Leggett's "Smart Growth Initiative" have shifted, further stoking ire that has simmered in the 15 months since it was announced. Two weeks ago, county officials inked an agreement to buy all — not one-third — of Webb Tract and are close to settling terms to lease then buy the 52-acre GE Tech Park and create a "public safety headquarters" in its five-story office building.

The county's General Services Department hopes to begin moving in to the GE Tech building next month, said Diane Schwartz Jones, one of Leggett's assistant chief administrative officers. The county's Department of Liquor Control should be running out of the adjoining Finmarc property by June 2011.

As recently as Feb. 9, Gaithersburg City Council reiterated "strong concerns" over the possibility of future development and the loss of tax revenue from one of the city's most valuable properties — but continues to negotiate privately with the county over construction of a long-planned aquatic center on the parcel.

The council's position has disappointed many residents in the Kentlands and Lakelands, who want written assurances that the county will never build there. Members of Concerned Taxpayers of Montgomery County, a civic group that questions the plan for financing the Smart Growth Initiative, believe that city leaders may be "nervous about taking on the county" for fear of upsetting the aquatic center negotiations.

"This is the fourth largest city in the state of Maryland; they act like they have no leverage whatsoever," said Jim Hubbard, CTMC member and Kentlands resident. "We're looking for leadership and we're not getting it."

At the 130-acre Webb Tract, residents are fuming after Leggett announced an agreement to buy the entire Webb Tract for $46.5 million, adding the county school system's building maintenance facility and the county parks department's vehicle maintenance operation. The Webb Tract was already pegged for the county's police and fire rescue training academy and the school system's food distribution warehouse.

"… The way this has transformed, I really don't trust the county, period," said Hans Jorgen Bjarno, whose home in Hunters Woods faces across Snouffer School Road onto the vacant land.

County Council subcommittees are scheduled to take up funding for GE Tech and Webb Tract on March 26.

Since Leggett's initial proposal, county staff has gone through several iterations at both properties.

At GE, staff decided last year to build the PSTA at the Webb Tract instead and promise to minimize impacts of the Department of Liquor Control at Finmarc.

At the Webb Tract, officials have committed to keeping more than 300-foot buffer between the PSTA's driving tracks and homes in East Village. They also plan to reconfigure the school warehouse and PSTA academic building so that they front Snouffer School Road instead of parking lots. The PSTA's "burn building" will be nearly 2,000 feet from homes in East Village.

Now that they have the full parcel, project leaders will be "revisiting the layout" and could shift plans for the Webb Tract's northern half to have less of an impact, Schwartz Jones said.

In the meantime, residents around the Webb Tract are working to rally their neighbors, particularly in East Village, where residents have for years fought off one proposal after another.

They are not yet for or against Leggett's plan, said East Village Homes Corp. president Terry O'Grady, and want a strong showing from non-Montgomery Village neighborhoods of Hunters Woods and Flower Hill at a resident's-only meeting on March 31 at the Lake Marion Community Center. O'Grady and other East Village residents who meet regularly with county officials intend to follow the March 31 meeting with a public forum in April.

Overall, they feel that the Webb Tract is being treated as a dumping ground slighted for the sake of hailed visions at the Shady Grove Metro and in the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center.

In a worksession last week, some council members indicated that they want to decide on the PSTA relocation after reviewing the Gaithersburg West master plan, which contains the 52-acre parcel. The working draft of Gaithersburg West calls for upwards of 2,000 homes on the PSTA site, part of a massive plan to quadruple development at the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center.

The master plan is scheduled for council review this fall.

The East Village Homes Corp. is hosting a

residents-only meeting for all neighbors to the Webb Tract at 7:30 p.m. March 31 at the Lake Marion Community Center, 8821 E. Village Ave. East Village leaders are following that up with a forum with county officials. That date has not been set. For more information, call

Aimee Winegar at 301-948-0110, ext. 330.